Manky's Pop.

[spanners]

that looks o.k from here 

what did you do with the  redundent gauge,s 

may be able to re-home them  in the near future 

[poprodder]

looking real good andy.
hotrod holes!!!!  love it!

[Manky Monkey]

According to Loony, you can never have too many hotrod holes.
Sorry Mike, they were only a cheap set of autojumble gauges, (20 quid for a set of 3 from Pop Parts Plus). We'd threaded the sender units under the carb manifold, which involved having to completely unbolt it & lift it slightly. Couldn't be arsed to do it again, so I just chopped the ends off. So got the 2 gauges & the water temp sender bulb if you can reconnect it.

[Tony oily bike]

According to Loony, you can never have too many hotrod holes.

There's nowt as light as a hole............ 




'cept maybe a hole filled with helium..............

[Manky Monkey]

 
I arrived at the workshop today to find Loony busy welding up the bulkhead components. I hadn't been 100% sure about it yesterday, but once it was all glued together it seemed to work. The demister air vent in front of the windscreen makes an interesting feature -obviously not standard fitment on a Pop, & helps to break up the flat expanse of bulkhead. Still got a little more to do, but it's looking promising.

[Manky Monkey]

As most of the mechanical stuff's done now, I've become Loony's sheet metal apprentice. I cut & form the parts from whatever steel scraps we've got & Mr L weddles them together.
Once the bulkhead's sorted, we need to attach the bonnet. Like a lot of old Brit cars, Pop's have a 2 part bonnet with the 2 sides opening along a centre hinge strip. After remodelling the bulkhead, we needed a new place to fix the rear hinge mount. We tried a couple of ideas & through our usual process of mutual consideration, experimentation & compromise -standing & looking at it for a while, then trying a few ideas -I bent a short length of flat sheet & cut 2 triangular side pieces to make a small platform on the bulkhead. Just taped in place at the moment as it needs a couple of captive nuts inside it, but Loony will weld it in tomorrow.

[Manky Monkey]

The chrome hinge strip will need shortening to fit, but will sit about here.

[Manky Monkey]

I also cut & shaped a few fill-in pieces for the rear of the cab. We've used Leyland Mini front wings, stood on end, to form the double curves of the cab corners, but they were shaped to fit against the bulkhead of the Mini, leaving a couple of triangular holes to fill in their new position. I've left them for Loony to weld in the morning.

[Manky Monkey]

Bonnet hinge mount ...mount, tacked in place. With the hinge strip shortened to suit we could hang one side of the bonnet on to get some idea of how much we need to alter it. Because we've stretched the engine bay, we need to add an extra 2" or so into the bonnet length.
We've also finally straightened up the crooked grille, plus I've blanked off the unwanted gauge sender units on the engine, so we can run it again now.

[Manky Monkey]

It also has to be notched to fit around the air vent.

[Manky Monkey]

Some time ago, I bought a second bonnet. We'll cut a 2" slice off one & graft it onto the other, though the second one seems to be in better condition than the original. Looks completely different with some bodywork on I think.

[Cabman77]

it really does look the nuts Andy 

[cunningplan]

Some time ago, I bought a second bonnet. We'll cut a 2" slice off one & graft it onto the other, though the second one seems to be in better condition than the original. Looks completely different with some bodywork on I think.

Shame to cut up a good bonnet for just 2 inch's, looking at the work you have already done you should be able to bend up a couple of filler strips to make up the gap at the back. Get a 3 inch strip, fold back 1/2 inch. lay it on the back end and fold it around and trim off the front just behind the body line, weld in place, bit of filler and "presto" one extended bonnet. 2 Minuit job at the most  

Looking good Andy

[poprodder]

nice work andy (&loony)
your getting there now.

[Manky Monkey]

I think we're way past the point of worrying about butchering classic car parts Tony!
The back edge of the bonnet actually curves in several different directions -not that easy to replicate.
Anyway, it's too late cos I cut it up this afternoon! There's a raised lip along the back edge, which just happens to be exactly the width we need to lengthen the bonnet by. So I chopped it off the original panels, ready to splice back onto the better condition replacement ones.